Last week, I took you through a slide show of five fighters within the UFC’s light heavyweight division who would match up well with current middleweight king, Anderson “The Spider” Silva.
The list contained such names as Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida and light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Surely, any of those stars could put up one hell of a fight against the man they’re now calling “the greatest fighter of all time.” Right?
It didn’t seem as if the fans are so sure.
The talents of Anderson Silva, they say, would be too much for anyone in the light heavyweight division to handle. Dan Henderson would be choked out again. Lyoto Machida would find himself on the receiving end of the dreaded crane kick. Jon Jones would be blasted out cold while attempting a spinning back elbow. Anderson Silva can’t be beat, won’t be beat.
Ok. Well, let’s take it a step further. What if he moved into the heavyweight division?
In all fairness, this isn’t something that is likely to ever happen. However, Silva would only have to put on an extra 35 lbs to go from middleweight to heavyweight. Randy Couture made the move from light heavyweight to heavyweight, and coming into a fight at merely 220-230lbs, he was still crowned the UFC heavyweight champion of the world for a period of time. Sure, he never fought at middleweight, but he was 43 freakin’ years old! That has to count for something.
So, just for the sake of argument, let’s say Anderson Silva did make the move up to the heavyweight division. Who would he face? How would he fare? Let’s have a look-see, shall we?